Airtel Leads Jio in Broadband Reliability and Speeds: Opensignal

• Airtel topped all five fixed broadband experience measures in Opensignal’s November 2026 India report.
• Its overall reliability score reached 486 points, 63 points ahead of Jio on Opensignal’s scale.
• Airtel also led every fixed wireless access category, including download speed, upload speed and reliability.

Airtel broadband performance has emerged ahead of Jio in reliability and speed in Opensignal’s November 2026 India Fixed Broadband Experience report. The study compares Airtel, Jio and BSNL across five experience parameters and names Airtel India’s Best Home Internet provider as well as Best Fixed Wireless Home Internet provider.

The results cover both fixed broadband services and Fixed Wireless Access (FWA). Airtel secured all five Overall Experience awards and all five FWA awards. For households comparing Airtel broadband with Jio, the report also highlights the changing mix of wired and wireless broadband connections across India.

Airtel Broadband Experience Leads Across Five Categories

Airtel won the five Overall Experience awards for Reliability, Consistent Quality, Download Speed, Upload Speed and Video Experience. Its overall Reliability score was 486 points, compared with 423 points for Jio. Opensignal uses a 100–1,000 point scale for this measure, putting Airtel 63 points, or around 15%, ahead of Jio. This Airtel broadband reliability result gives the operator a clear lead in the report.

The speed results also favoured Airtel. Its overall download and upload speeds were 26–27% higher than Jio’s. Jio recorded 30.5 Mbps for downloads and 21.0 Mbps for uploads. BSNL was close to Airtel in both measures, trailing the operator by just 0.5 Mbps on downloads and 0.8 Mbps on uploads. These figures put Airtel broadband ahead on both speed measures.

Airtel Wins All Five Fixed Wireless Access Awards

Airtel broadband also led Jio across all five Fixed Wireless Access experience categories. FWA uses a wireless connection between a nearby mobile network site and the customer’s home, rather than a fibre cable running directly to the premises.

The FWA reliability score gives Airtel an 18% lead over Jio. It also recorded higher download and upload speeds, along with a stronger Consistent Quality score. These results place Airtel broadband ahead in both the wired broadband experience comparison and the fixed wireless segment covered by the report.

India’s Fixed Broadband and 5G FWA Market

TRAI data for the end of August 2026 puts India’s fixed wired broadband base at 48.6 million subscriptions and its FWA base at 19.3 million. The country’s 5G FWA subscriber base reached 13.5 million. Rural 5G FWA subscriptions stood at 7 million, moving ahead of the urban base of 6.5 million.

Jio remained the largest wired broadband provider with 14.8 million subscriptions, followed by Airtel at 11.4 million and BSNL at 4.56 million. Jio also had 9.4 million 5G FWA subscriptions. Subscriber scale and network experience are different measures, so the market-share figures do not change the performance results in Opensignal’s report.

Airtel’s Pivot to Fibre Strategy

Airtel has described its approach as a “pivot to fiber” strategy. Under this approach, the company prioritises fibre broadband and uses FWA in locations where fibre is not available. This allows Airtel broadband to serve homes beyond its current wired network footprint while continuing to expand fibre coverage.

The report’s results show Airtel leading the measured experience categories, even as Jio holds a larger wired broadband subscriber base and a substantial 5G FWA base. For customers, actual performance can still vary by location, network capacity, plan and home setup.

Conclusion

Opensignal’s November 2026 report places Airtel ahead of Jio in overall fixed broadband and FWA experience, with wins across all five categories in both segments. For customers comparing Airtel broadband services, these results offer another measure of network experience. Jio continues to lead in wired broadband subscriptions, while India’s 5G FWA base is growing and rural connections have moved ahead of urban ones.

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